


Heartlines

by xLyrael



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic is Real, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-07-26 09:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7568158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLyrael/pseuds/xLyrael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is going to feel a little strange." </p><p>The carousel is more than just a pretty piece of Dylan's dramatic reveal; it's a powerful tool used by the Eye to gift worthy magicians with abilities they've only ever dreamed of.  Unfortunately, not everyone thinks they deserve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more plot-heavy than my other works, and will be much longer. It also won't focus on romantic relationships, though they are all fairly close and you can probably read into whichever combo you like. I hope people will give it a read anyway! I expect this to be around 4-5 chapters, though we'll see. This chapter beta read by corinthiandawn (FFnet).

Daniel took a steadying breath as he caught his balance on the carousel. He'd made it. He was about to be officially inducted into the Eye, a goal he'd had ever since first learning of it. The carousel was a nice touch, appropriately showy for their true finale. He was eager to get off and into the meat of it all, though, into the details of what exactly the Eye _was_.  He figured he should just let the moment be and relaxed, letting himself sway with the movement of the carousel and watching the others revel in the excitement of the moment.

Dylan grinned at them and with his voice carrying over the noise, said, "This might feel a little strange."

After a few seconds Daniel did indeed notice something strange and blinked, then blinked harder when the illusion didn't fade. He could have sworn the horse next to him had _moved_ , and when he looked around, no amount of blinking helped. The horses closest to him appeared to actually be moving. It was subtle, and they weren't moving much, but it was as if they were galloping in slow motion, not simply moving up and down on the poles, but actually moving their legs like they were _real_. He shook his head and watched in amazement.

Henley, sat atop one of the horses, ran her hands up and down her arms when she felt a shiver run through her. It didn't stop. The shiver turned into a sort of warm, tingling sensation that ran throughout her whole body, like being wrapped in a warm blanket after coming in from the cold. She noticed it become more focused on certain areas: a scar on her palm she got when she was eight; a spot on her knee from falling when she was eleven; a scrape on her arm she got when she hugged a corner too tightly when running from the FBI. She lifted her arm to look and was startled to see that the scrape was gone and laughed in surprise, hardly able to believe her eyes.

Merritt was feeling pretty good. He didn't know when he had closed his eyes but he didn't mind. He had never felt more free than he did in that moment. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around in wonder. He felt like a horse that had just had its blinders removed and he could finally see fully for the first time in his life. He took it all in; the carousel, the other three Horsemen and their wonder, Dylan and the pride he had for the magicians around him. Merritt wasn't sure what was happening, but he did not mind at all.

Jack wasn't feeling quite so great. His initial euphoria had turned into confusion as the world seemed to shift, to stretch, and he had to tighten his grip on the pole to keep his balance. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, then decided it was much better with them closed and promptly shut them again, feeling overwhelmingly dizzy. Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time and he sank slowly to his knees, the horse next to him the only thing keeping him upright.

Dylan simply leaned back and relaxed, letting the gathering power move through him as it filled the others. His expression became troubled once, and he opened his eyes to make sure the other four were still safe and whole, then relaxed again, shaking it off.

Eventually the carousel slowed to a stop, the ride coming to an end. The Horsemen took a breath as they began to feel more normal, strange movements and feelings ceasing as they regained their bearings. 

Dylan walked towards them as Henley made her way over to Jack to help him to his shaky feet.

"'Strange' was one way you could put that," Jack muttered.

They all felt slightly off balance, and they looked to Dylan for an explanation.

"This will be easier to explain somewhere else." Dylan looked around, focusing on a particularly bushy area for a moment. "And safer."

"That's reassuring," Merritt said, but they started moving towards the exit.

"What do you mean by safer?" Daniel asked, looking towards the same bushes.

Dylan continued to herd them away, saying, "Could just be a homeless guy and I'm being paranoid, or it could be a mugger. Or something worse. I don't want to take any chances."

Daniel looked back a few more times as they left the park, but couldn't see anything strange. He fought back a shiver and walked through the gate, Jack relocking it behind them.

"I don't think we're being followed. I wouldn't be surprised if the noise just drew the attention of anyone still out here this late," Dylan reassured them as they made their way to where he had parked. "It'll be tight but I think we'll all fit. We'll head back to your hotel and I'll fill you in there."

There was murmured assent as they all climbed in and made their way to the most recent hotel they'd been living out of. If Dylan drove a little faster than was really necessary, nobody mentioned it.

\---

Near the carousel, hidden in a dark clump of bushes, a man stood and put a phone to his ear.

"The four from the media, plus Shrike. Guess they passed," he sneered. He listened for a moment more, uttered an affirmation, and ended the call with a grin.

He always enjoyed the next few steps.

\---

Dylan let out a whistle as they piled into their hotel living room and said, "Nice place."

"You would know," said Merritt. "I wondered how the Eye had enough funds to get a four bedroom hotel suite in several different cities, but after the past couple of months it doesn't seem quite so outrageous."

Dylan smirked. "The monthly stipend doesn't hurt either."

"You're telling me," Jack snorted. "I don't know if I could go back to the streets any more, I'm too spoiled from this 'getting paid regularly' thing."

"Amen." Henley and Jack shared a brief high five.

Daniel, ever focused, made his way to the couch and said, "So, I wasn't the only one who thought that ride was a little… abnormal? Was I? You implied as much when we were leaving, Dylan."

The others settled down as Dylan nodded.

"So," Dylan began, "no, that was not your typical carousel ride. That particular carousel is one of a few locations the Eye uses to… I guess 'give their gift' would be the simplest way to say it."

"That's a little creepy." Merritt dodged a swipe from Daniel.

"Gifts?" Henley wondered if tingly feelings were supposed to be a sweet gesture or something, but remembered the scrape on her arm disappearing and decided it wouldn't hurt to hear him out.

"That ride is used by tons of people every day. How does that work?" Jack asked.

"I'm getting there, guys, bear with me." Dylan cleared his throat and continued. "When the Eye determines a magician has proven themselves through a series of tasks completed in blind faith, they use a site, like the carousel, though they have others as well, to act as a sort of magical conduit. These are normal objects that are activated by a member of the Eye. In this case, me. It would have just been another carousel ride had anyone else tried to operate it. It instills a gift, a… power or ability, in the chosen magicians."

"Now wait a minute—"

"It was an impressive illusion on the ride, but you can't actually be expecting us to believe that magic is real—" Daniel began skeptically, and Jack finished with a reluctantly awed, "We have _magical powers?_ "

"Guys!" Dylan almost had to shout to be heard in the midst of their protests. "What happened to the blind faith?"

"I told you all in that warehouse that this was some weird scheme thought up by some deranged—"

"Merritt, please—"

"wacko intent on using us for their own nefarious—"

"Oh my god." Henley put her head in her hands as Jack tried to get Merritt to listen to reason.

"Do you have any proof?" Daniel asked.

This got the noise to die down for a pause until Merritt leaned over to hiss, "Why are you asking him? _He's the wacko!_ "

"Merritt, I swear—"

"It's alright," Dylan said. "I don't have any concrete proof right now."

"Hah!"

" _But_ , if you let me finish, you'll each have all the proof you need when you start manifesting your new abilities."

Jack was finally looking a little skeptical. "You're part of the Eye already, right? So show us your powers." Merritt elbowed him. "Or whatever."

"Mine don't really lend themselves to showing off. Hold on a second, Merritt. I was given an increased sense of intuition and occasionally I have dreams that actually end up happening. Recently, as I've gotten better at controlling them, I've had these visions while awake as well." He looked at their disbelieving faces. "Look, how do you think any of this was pulled off? Do you really think some of the stuff you did could have happened without someone being able to know exactly what was going to happen and when?"

"So… your visions were the reason we knew the car chase would work without civilians getting hurt?" Jack asked.

"Not mine. I had a large hand in planning this whole thing but most of the details were done by the Eye themselves. Someone there can see like I can, but I imagine they've had much, much more time to learn how to use it," Dylan clarified.

Daniel took a breath and asked, "So let's say you're telling the truth."

"Not you too, Danny Boy!"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "So let's say you are. What are our 'gifts'? Other than the illusion on the carousel I don't feel any different."

Merritt finally stopped trying to harass Dylan as he heard this. "What illusion? I don't remember anything like that."

"The horses. They were moving. They—Henley, you saw them too, right? Jack?" The other two shook their heads.

"I was too busy trying not to puke," Jack said.

"I had a scrape on my arm, from the chase. On the carousel I felt strange, especially around that scrape, but when I looked it was gone." Henley looked around at the skeptical, hopeful faces of her teammates. "It wasn't very deep, so I could be imagining things, but… It would be a pretty odd coincidence."

"No, that sounds about right," Dylan said. "You'll each have had a different experience on the ride. I had a vision when I was inducted and ended up being prescient, so it could be related to what you were being gifted with at the time. I don't know for sure. I can't tell you with any finality what your individual gifts will be. It could be something that's already intrinsically part of you, like your cold readings, Merritt, or maybe Jack will be able to turn invisible since he's already good at not being seen. Or it could be completely out of left field. Henley, maybe you'll never get a scrape again, or maybe you'll grow gills."

"Gross."

Dylan shrugged. "I wish I could tell you for sure, but you'll have to discover them for yourselves. If it helps, think of it as your next task from the Eye. Discover your gifts and begin to learn how they work."

"You don't seem to know very much for someone who said he'd be giving us answers," Henley said.

"I'm a member of the Eye, and a relatively new one at that. I don't run it," Dylan said. "I can help, though. The blind faith business doesn't end here. The Eye has given you a gift and it can't be taken away, but they can decide that you'll no longer benefit from their support."

"That's not ominous at all."

"Maybe Merritt will gain the power of shutting his mouth for more than thirty seconds at a time," Daniel said.

"Maybe with yours you'll finally have the ability to remove the stick from your ass," Merritt returned sweetly.

Henley rolled her eyes. "Hopefully mine will be really powerful selective hearing so I don't have to listen to you two bicker ever again."

Jack just snickered as Dylan stood.

"I think that's as much progress as this group can make in one night," he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper with a key ring taped to it, handing it to Daniel. "This is the address of your new apartment in the city and four keys. A little seedy, but it shouldn't be dangerous and it'll be much less likely that anyone in the area will recognize you, or even care if they did. Already partially furnished, you'll just need bedding and such. I know you guys are probably itching for your own space by now, but the Eye thinks you'll have an easier time fostering your new skills if you're together. You'll be able to get your own places soon, just not right away."

"So it's 'sit and wait' again?" Merritt asked.

"It's 'discover and learn' actually. It'll be fun. You'll see."

Merritt clearly wasn't convinced, but didn't pursue the conversation. Dylan headed out and Daniel followed so he could lock the door.

"So… What do you guys think we'll get?" Jack asked. Merritt just sighed and went to his room, shutting the door behind him. Determined, Jack turned to Henley beside him.

She sighed and patted him on the arm. "I wish I had your optimism, Jack. I'm going to head to bed."

Daniel turned from the door and headed to Jack, his slumped shoulders and frown making him look like a kicked puppy. Daniel sat next to him and knocked their knees together.

"So much for blind faith," Jack muttered. "I guess I'm going to head to bed too."

Before he could get up Daniel said, "I bet they're just upset because they know their gifts will be lame." He was pleased when Jack huffed out a reluctant laugh. "No, really. If you think about it, you and I did all the hard work. I mean hell, you died. I bet we get something awesome, like… I don't know, like flight or something, and they end up just being able to keep a vase of flowers alive for an extra day."

"That's not very nice," Jack said with a laugh, but sobered soon after. "What do you think we'll really get, though?"

"Something great," Daniel said definitively. "I bet Dylan's not far off with the whole invisibility thing. You've always been good at only being seen when you want to be." Daniel bumped his knee again and asked, "What's got you so upset? They're just being even bigger wet blankets than I usually am, they'll get over it when they get proof."

"It's not them. You said you saw the horses moving?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. I guess not everyone did, though."

"Right. So maybe you'll be like a super horse whisperer, or you'll be able to make statues move at will, or… I don't know. Something pretty amazing." Jack waved dismissively and continued, "And what did I see? Nothing, because I couldn't keep my eyes open or I would have puked. What's that make me? What does that mean about any kind of gift they could have given me? The power of super vomit. Anyone I touch gets insane vertigo."

"Okay, okay," Daniel interrupted him before he could think up any more nausea related magical powers. "I think maybe you're looking too closely." Jack snorted at the misuse of J. Daniel Atlas's tag line. "Shut up, I'm serious. What exactly was making you feel so nauseated?"

Jack closed his eyes and tried to picture the carousel ride and what he'd experienced. "I don't think it was the ride itself. I've usually got a tougher stomach than that. I think… It was really strange." He opened his eyes and looked back at Daniel. "Everything around me seemed to kind of _warp_. Everything was going faster than it should have been, and slower at the same time, but I wasn't. I was still normal. I kinda still wanna barf when I think about it."

"Let's not do that," Daniel cautioned. "But hey, listen to yourself. That's not just nausea, that's really similar to mine, just slightly different elements." Jack was looking more hopeful now. "If you ask me, I'd put my money on you being able to maybe manipulate the physical things around you."

"You think?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. I wish I'd asked Dylan, but I bet he wouldn't know either."

"Asked him what?"

"The extent of the gifts. Are they purely mental, like Dylan's visions and intuition? Or can they be manifested physically as well? He mentioned gills on Henley, but I don't know if he was serious. It would give us a better starting point if we knew the type of thing to look for."

"You're right." Jack bounced one of his feet, clearly getting excited again. "When do you think we'll know? Will we wake up knowing? Will it gradually show up? How can they expect us to sleep if we might be _magic_?"

"You're already magic, Jack, this just means you'll be able to do more with it than before."

Jack beamed and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "You're a secret sap!"

"Forget I said anything."

"Are you kidding? I've gotta put that in my journal," Jack said with batting eyelashes.

"You're actually the worst. I'm going to bed now. Have fun being awful. I hope your gift was rabies."

Jack cackled, then called out softly, "Hey, Danny?"

Daniel stopped and looked back just before leaving the room completely. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Yeah, whatever. Try to get some actual sleep."

"Yeah. You too."

Jack grinned, spirits lifted, and headed to bed himself, though he didn't think he'd be getting much rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you thought! Even if it's to tell me everything was piss-poor and you want your 20 minutes back. I haven't tried my hand at anything long and plotty in a very long time so I'd love any comments or criticisms you have.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henley and Daniel discover their gifts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to everyone who gave kudos and commented, they're really appreciated and super motivating! Thanks as well to lostvoice and dorkylokifan for beta reading this chapter!

The next few days left little time to think about the possibilities of real magical abilities as the four were busy moving out of the latest hotel and into their next apartment. That didn't take too long, though, and since the FBI was still trying to track them down, they were unable to spend too much time outside lest they be seen and reported. This meant no time performing, and ample time wondering both aloud and to themselves if they had been the victims of a very elaborate prank.

A week after the move, the apartment was coming together. The inhabitants were becoming more and more dejected with every day that passed with no apparent manifestation of new abilities. While all four were beginning to have true doubts, 'blind faith' be damned, Merritt in particular was becoming almost unbearable in his pessimism. Jack took to asking for hypnotism lessons just so the other Horsemen could hear something other than "I told you so" every thirty seconds.

Jack walked into the living room where Merritt was reading a book, Henley was absorbed in her laptop, and even Daniel, who was normally holed away in his room, was lazing on the loveseat mindlessly working a deck of cards in his hands.

"Come across any magical powers in the shower, Jack?" Merritt asked as Jack crossed to the couch.

"Not quite." Jack winced as Daniel opened his mouth, no doubt to happily continue their almost week-long argument. "Oh, but hey," Jack blurted before Daniel had a chance to open fire, "I think I'm getting the hang of the bit you were trying to show me. Want to go over it again?"

Daniel narrowed his eyes but accepted the change of subject, going back to his cards as Merritt heaved a sigh and put his book on the side table.

"We could do that," Merritt answered. "I think I want to switch it up some, though."

"Oh, uh, sure," Jack replied, slightly surprised Merritt was changing the routine, but he figured anything was better than constant bickering.

"I think you've got the right idea, learning something new, something outside your, ah, skillset. Better than waiting around for Tinkerbell to shake her glitter on us—"

"Fairy dust," Henley interjected.

"Excuse me?"

"Tinkerbell has fairy dust," she explained without looking away from her computer.

Daniel let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like, "Choose your battles," and Merritt seemed to agree.

"Yeah, thanks," Merritt said, turning back to Jack. "Anyway, I've been giving away all my trade secrets to you, so I think it's time you returned the favor."

"O…kay?" Jack wasn't really sure where this was going.

"I want you to show me how to hit a target with a playing card." Jack let out a relieved breath, and then immediately regretted it when Merritt opened his mouth again. "A target about the size of Danny's head."

"You know what—" The head in question shot up wearing an angry glare.

"I think that's a great idea!" Jack interjected. "Minus the hitting Danny part."

"Damn."

"Here, we'll use your hat as a target," Jack said, ignoring Merritt's protests as his hat was swept off his head and placed across the room. He grabbed the nearest deck and started showing Merritt the proper way to move his body to execute a good throw, then threw a couple into the hat as examples.

Daniel, his own deck still moving seamlessly in his hands, watched with amusement as Merritt lined up his first throw with movements so exaggerated they gained Henley's attention as well.

They all watched as Merritt threw the card with confidence, only for it to flutter to the ground about two feet away. Jack was proud when Daniel and Henley didn’t actually laugh out loud. Merritt gave it a couple more tries before pausing.

"Huh. This could possibly be a tiny bit harder than I had imagined," Merritt said.

"It does take some practice." Jack adjusted the way Merritt was holding his card. "Try doing it a little more gently and—like this…"

They worked on Merritt's technique for a while, Daniel and Henley losing interest and returning their focus to other things, and eventually Merritt was able to get a decent amount of distance, if not with great aim.

Jack encouraged him, and Merritt threw the next card with more confidence and a lot more force. This time the card did not flutter to the ground; it flew in a quick arc until it grazed Henley's cheek and hit the wall behind her.

Henley let out a startled noise as the card swiped her and put her hand to her cheek, pulling back her fingers and seeing blood.

"Oh, shit," Jack said, running to the kitchen to grab a wet rag as Merritt let out a faint, "Oops."

Daniel dropped his cards and cried, "You asshole!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Merritt yelled back.

"Guys, calm down!" Henley said. "It's just a scratch. It doesn't even hurt."

Jack arrived as the two men tried to decide whether to continue panicking or not and wiped the damp cloth gently across Henley's cheek. He blinked and wiped again, confused when he couldn't find the cut.

"Oh, wait. Sorry," he muttered, taking her bloodied fingers and wiping those instead. "I thought it got your cheek."

"It did," Henley replied, laughing a bit breathlessly as she watched Jack turn her hand over, looking for a wound. She extracted her now mostly clean hand and touched her cheek where she knew she'd been hit. "Oh. That's strange."

"There's nothing there," Jack confirmed.

"There has to be something there," Daniel said. "How could there be blood without a wound?"

Merritt looked relieved. "This sounds like a great opportunity to forget it ever happened."

"There's a—there's sort of a really faint red mark?" Jack suggested.

Daniel nudged Jack out of the way and looked for himself.

"That can't be where the blood came from," Daniel said. "It's completely closed."

Merritt made his way over, shooting an apologetic look towards Henley, and bent down to look as well.

"I don't see anything," he said, running a finger over her cheek briefly to be sure. "Not even a bump."

"It's just here—oh." Daniel swiped his own finger across Henley's skin with wonder. "It's gone."

Jack leaned over Daniel's shoulder to look again. "Wow. Completely disappeared."

"Guys!" Henley was almost shouting with barely suppressed excitement. "This might be it!"

"This might be what?" Daniel asked.

"On the carousel the same thing happened. I thought it was just a trick of the light or something and that I'd just imagined it, but I had a scratch on my arm, and then it was gone!" She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "I don't want to get excited until we can tell for sure. Maybe this was a fluke. Jack, go get a knife."

"Absolutely not!" Daniel shouted. Jack didn't think he'd ever heard him sound quite so appalled, and he sounded appalled a lot.

"Danny, we have to know for sure," Henley pleaded.

"There is absolutely no way I'm letting you—letting you _maim_ yourself!"

"I'm gonna go ahead and put my vote in the 'no, and slightly horrified at the suggestion' camp," Merritt offered.

"It's a good thing neither of you can tell me what to do, then."

Jack slowly backed away as the three continued arguing. He certainly wasn't about to grab a knife so they could start dicing Henley up, but he knew how badly she must want a concrete answer. He glanced at the haphazard pile of cards that had been left on the side table in their rush to check on Henley and figured hey, he was a trained professional, wasn't he?

Danny was going to kill him.

Jack sent a card flying through the air. Henley let out another surprised gasp and pulled her forearm instinctively towards herself before she realized what had happened and grabbed the cloth, wiping her arm several times and watching closely.

"Are you _insane_?" Daniel shouted, livid. Jack winced and shrugged, moving towards Henley to try and see what was happening without coming within beating range of Daniel.

"I hope you have a will written up, kid," Merritt said.

"Guys, I think it's working!" Henley cried. "It's so fast, though. Jack, can you do it deeper? Maybe it'll last longer."

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Hen," Jack replied.

Daniel appeared to be beyond words and was turning slightly red.

"You saw him cut a pencil in half, among other household objects, many times," Merritt tried to reason. "Do you really want that kind of force applied to your skin? People are more fragile than they look."

"Yes. Come on, Jack! It's working, we can see it working, I just want to watch one more time. Please!"

Jack sighed and ran his hand through his hair, not wanting to let Henley down but also feeling slightly sick from using his cards to hurt her in the first place.

"One more," he finally groaned. "I won't do any more after that, I don't care what you say, so make this one count."

Daniel was emitting a concerning mix of a garbled squawk and a shriek and Merritt just shook his head and leaned against the wall to watch.

"I'm going to go for your thigh," Jack said, aiming at the exposed skin below her shorts. "Less can go wrong there. Probably."

"Go for it before Danny explodes," she urged.

Jack took a deep breath, aimed, and let the card fly. Daniel seemed to have finally reached his limit, however, as he let out a forceful, " _Stop_!" and they all watched as the card did indeed stop mid air, hanging completely still in the middle of its downward arc towards Henley's thigh.

Daniel let out a shaky breath and blinked, and the card shook minutely and dropped to the ground.

"Um." No one seemed to be able to speak. Daniel turned his head towards Henley but wasn't able to look away from the card completely, like it might disappear once out of his sight. "That's, ah… That's enough proof, yeah?" he asked hoarsely. "Can we please not slice you up anymore?"

"I think we're good," Henley replied weakly.

"Guess we know what yours is," Merritt said with a small smile, slowly processing the proof, right in front of his eyes, that all of this was real. He chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Can you pick it back up?"

Daniel looked up at Merritt, startled away from his staring contest with the card. "I don't know."

Henley walked over to him and gave his arm an encouraging squeeze. "Give it a try, Danny."

Jack smiled and bit his lip, trying not to literally vibrate in excitement so he didn't distract Daniel.

"I don't even know what to do." Daniel shook his head and took a steadying breath, looking back down at the card. He tried picturing the card moving, lifting up into the air, but nothing happened. There was a sad sort of wiggle, but it could have been a draft from the air conditioning. He swallowed and thought about it, trying to forget about the three people looking at him expectantly.

Logically, he figured it was the intention, rather than actually saying the word 'stop,' that had pinned the card in place. Or at least that was his hope, as he wasn't about to start shouting, "Up!" like a total idiot only for nothing to happen. He gave his hair a frustrated tug with one hand and _willed_ the card to move.

To his utter surprise, it did. Not a lot, but it was undeniable. The card lifted into the air, flipping and turning slightly, until it was nearly as high as their knees. When Daniel lost his focus, marveling at the fact that this was really, truly happening, it fell back to the ground amidst the cheering of the other Horsemen. He took a shaky breath and tried to move it again, but it was like trying to start running again after you've already hit your limit. He simply couldn't move it.

"I need to, um—" Daniel pointed vaguely towards his bedroom as he made his way out of the den feeling slightly overwhelmed, shutting the door behind himself.

"He's not upset, is he?" Jack asked. "That was so cool!"

Merritt shook his head. "I think he's just reverted to super-focused-Daniel. Watch, he'll come out of there tomorrow a master of all magic ever."

"Hell, he's probably embarrassed he couldn't shuffle the deck with his mind already," Henley added with a snort. She turned a high-watt smile towards the two men left in the room. "Now it's just you two!"

They all shared excited smiles, relief making them feel utterly weightless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! Next time we'll finally find out what Jack and Merritt were given, and then we get to the meat of the plot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merritt and Jack have their turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who gave kudos and commented, and to lostvoice and dorkylokifan for beta reading this chapter!

After Daniel retreated to his room, the other three dispersed as well, contemplating what the earlier discoveries could mean for the future. It was much later in the evening when they were discussing what to do for dinner that they realized Merritt had been right; Daniel hadn’t left his room all day.

“I guess someone should drag him out here and force some food into him,” Merritt said, looking up from a takeout menu on the counter.

“Thanks for volunteering!” Henley said cheerfully, a relieved Jack nodding next to her.

“Miserable brats, the both of you,” Merritt muttered. He rolled his eyes and set his shoulders dramatically, steeling himself for the unpleasant task ahead of him.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or to prepare a speech for the funeral,” Jack said as he watched Merritt head towards Daniel’s room.

“Why not both?” Henley offered. They had all learned exactly how irritable Daniel could get when he was interrupted from a deeply focused mood. Things were broken, people cried… Needless to say, they tried to avoid doing it whenever possible, but they could appreciate the humor in the train wreck when out of the line of fire.

Merritt shook his head and braced himself as he stood outside Daniel’s door. He knocked bravely and waited.

And waited.

After a minute or so he knocked again more firmly. “Daniel?” he called. Another pause. “Daniel, I’m going to knock again, and then if you don’t answer I’m coming in to make sure you’re not dead.”

Merritt heard several soft thuds come from inside Daniel’s room, like small items had been dropped to the floor, and a moment later the door opened and an exhausted looking Daniel leaned against the frame. Instead of a greeting, Daniel let out a grunt and glared impatiently at Merritt.

“Well someone’s definitely not getting their beauty sleep,” Merritt said.

“What do you want?” Daniel snapped.

“We’re ordering dinner and you look like you could use it. Actually, you look like you’ve missed a year of sleep between this morning and now. What have you been doing all day?”

“What have I—Merritt, did you miss the part of today where we used actual magical powers? What do you think I’ve been doing? Painting my nails?”

“Pardon me for wanting to make sure you hadn’t collapsed in a fit of misery when you discovered you couldn’t master everything in one day, though by the looks of it I only barely got here in time.”

Appearing to mentally restrain himself, Daniel said, “Please leave now,” and tried to shut the door.

“Hey, wait,” Merritt tried, sticking his foot in the doorway, “Take a quick break and eat something. You can levitate the forks while you do it or something, come on.”

“I’ll eat when I’m done, thanks, but I’m not hungry right now,” Daniel replied irritably, leaning on the door harder.

Merritt huffed and gave the door a push, surprised when it suddenly gave way and Daniel stumbled backwards. Daniel swayed a bit before catching his balance with a hand on his desk, the other hand moving to his forehead. He shook it off his apparent dizziness and straightened, tried to step towards the door again to shut it but groaned when he was hit with another wave of vertigo.

“Whoa there,” Merritt said, taking Daniel by the shoulders to steady him. “This stuff really takes it out of you, I guess.”

“I’m fine,” Daniel said, trying to squirm out of Merritt’s grasp. “I’ll be fine.”

“Come on, you know I can tell that’s not true,” Merritt replied. He looked at Daniel’s slumped form in his hands, reminding him of a cranky toddler that didn’t want his nap, and decided that at the moment food could wait. “Come on, cut that out, I’m trying to keep you upright, you idiot,” he said as Daniel continued to try getting him back to the hallway.

Merritt sighed and gave up, going off of sudden instinct as he managed to catch and hold Daniel’s eyes and, giving him a firm shake, said, “Daniel, you need to go to _sleep_.”

Daniel immediately slumped forward onto Merritt’s chest, startling him. Daniel had never responded to his hypnotism unless he worked at it for a significant amount of time, so he was a bit worried that this was just the kid passing out from exhaustion.

“Daniel? Danny?” The only response was a light snore, so with a grunt Merritt heaved him into his arms and deposited him onto the bed. He pestered him until he got a mostly coherent, if sleepy, “Fuck off,” and, reassured that Daniel wouldn’t perish while he was gone, went back to the kitchen.

“Glad to see you made it out alive,” Jack greeted from where he was playing on his phone at the table. “Henley decided you were taking too long and went to get the food. No luck prying the beast from his cave?”

“Not as such,” Merritt replied. “I’ll take what small victories I can get, though. He’s asleep.”

“Bravo! I didn’t think he was actually capable of taking breaks.”

“Neither did I, but I guess something I said got through to him.” Merritt replayed the scene in his head and wasn’t quite sure what to do with the implications.

Jack gave him a sideways glance at his tone of voice. “Are you sure there weren’t any casualties? You look like you’ve got a stomach ache or something, man.”

“Actually, Jack, I could use your help with something.” Merritt had come to a decision. He’d initially wanted to attribute Daniel’s fainting spell to his obvious fatigue, but with all the fairy dust floating around already that day he figured there wouldn’t be any harm in entertaining the idea that maybe the incident wasn’t completely mundane.

“The Tums are in the cabinet by the sink,” Jack offered.

“Not that kind of help. Follow me.” Merritt moved them to the living room and positioned Jack standing just in front of the couch and stood a couple of feet in front of him.

“I thought we agreed that you were going to warn us when you wanted to practice hypnotism on us? Actually, I thought the rule was that you _don’t_ practice your hypnotism on us,” Jack said.

“This isn’t hypnotism,” Merritt replied. “I think.”

Before Jack could reply, Merritt looked him in the eyes, mustered up all of the conviction he could, and commanded, “ _Sit_.”

Jack immediately dropped heavily onto the couch.

“Hey!”

“ _Quiet_.” Merritt was astounded when Jack continued to protest, but no noise actually came out of his mouth. Jack’s hands went to his throat as he tried unsuccessfully to speak and glared at Merritt. Merritt laughed when he realized that Jack would definitely be trying to throttle him _if only he could stand up_! Jack was stuck to the couch, or at least stuck in a sitting position; Merritt wasn’t sure which.

“I could get used to this,” Merritt said, enjoying Jack’s subsequent frustrated flail. The longer his little experiment lasted, however, the more he felt like he needed to sit down himself. He thought back to Daniel’s disheveled state and wondered what it would take to get that far gone, and then abruptly realized he wasn’t sure how to release Jack from the commands.

While Merritt contemplated the kind of death that might come from all of your energy being sucked up by being dumb enough to test something you couldn’t undo, Jack seemed to see the uncertainty on his face and became more flustered, making creative threatening motions with the parts of his body that he could still move.

Merritt went into a panicked autopilot and used the tried and true, “ _Wake up_!”

He’d never been more relieved to be tackled to the ground by a loud, irate teenager. His relief was short-lived as Jack used his new position on the ground to straddle him and began pummeling any area he could reach, with Merritt doing the best he could to keep his fists away from anything important.

“What the _shit_ , Merritt?” Jack didn’t seem ready to let up any time soon, and huffed in frustration as Merritt finally caught and held both of Jack’s fists mostly immobile.

“Okay, okay, listen!” Merritt said, trying to get Jack off of his torso. “I’ll be the first to admit that my little experiment didn’t go exactly to plan.”

“You think?” Jack finally rolled off of Merritt and got up, though he still looked as if he could change his mind at any moment. Merritt groaned and got up as well, heading to the couch and staying carefully out of Jack’s reach. “What the hell even was that? Did you hypnotize me earlier and just now activate it? ‘Cause we have those rules for a reason and I really don’t appreciate—”

“No! I never hypnotized you, and I don’t think that was hypnotism anyway, not really.”

“More like mind control. It was freaky. Don’t do it again.”

Merritt held his hands up in surrender as Jack finally relaxed a bit and sat down. “Trust me, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again without a much better grasp on how to control it.”

“Do you think it’s your gift?” Jack asked, looking much more calm at the thought of another one of them discovering their new abilities.

“I don’t know what else it could be.” Merritt’s forthcoming attempt at an explanation was cut short as the front door opened and Henley walked in carrying several bags of takeout.

“Give me a hand, boys, will you?” Henley asked as she headed to the kitchen. They stood and followed her, and Merritt could hear Jack ahead of him giving her a brief but enthusiastic rundown of what had happened while she was out, minus, it seemed, the wrestling bits, as they set the food on the table and sat down.

When he walked into the room, Henley smiled excitedly and turned to Merritt and said, “Congrats! Mind control, huh?”

Merritt shrugged and joined them at the table. “Makes about as much sense as anything else. Maybe it’s just an extreme extension of my hypnotism. I won’t need to actually put anyone under anymore.”

“At least yours is actually related to something you already do. I have no idea where the whole ‘healing’ thing could have come from,” Henley said. “Where’s Danny?”

“That’s actually how I realized something was up,” Merritt said. “Daniel didn’t want to take a break—which, trust me, he needed—and when I suggested he go to sleep he was immediately out like a light.”

“He’s always so good at shaking the normal hypnotism, too,” Jack said. “Wait. I couldn’t move until you released me. Does that mean Danny will sleep until you wake him up?”

“Huh. Good question, kid.” Merritt looked towards Daniel’s bedroom for a moment then shrugged. “For now a little sleep won’t hurt him.”

“We should set up a visit with Dylan,” Henley said. “Maybe now that most of us know what we were given he’ll be a bit more helpful.”

“Just got to wait for Jack here to join the party bus,” Merritt said.

Jack rolled his eyes good naturedly and tried not to get his hopes up too high.

After dinner, Henley left the cleanup to the boys and went to check on Daniel. Jack’s comment worried her; they didn’t really know the extent of what they could do yet, and she didn’t want Daniel to accidentally get hurt if there were consequences to Merritt’s control lasting too long.

After receiving no answer to her knock, Henley pushed Daniel’s door open and stepped inside. The room was a mess. It looked as if he had taken any object left on his desk or bookshelf and thrown them on the floor. She sighed and shook her head, knowing that he must have been extremely focused to let it get this bad.

She spent a few minutes picking up books and playing cards off the floor and generally setting the room to rights so Daniel didn’t trip and concuss himself when he did wake up, and then sat next to him on the bed and shook him gently.

“Danny?” she whispered. She didn’t want to wake him completely up, just get him conscious enough that she could assume he still had the ability to wake up without Merritt’s intervention.

“Hey, Danny.” He finally gave a grunt and shifted. Relieved, she poked him a few more times until he said something coherent, then gave him a pat, told him to go back to sleep, and went to get ready for bed herself.

The next afternoon Daniel stumbled sleepily into the kitchen while Merritt and Jack were eating lunch.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Merritt said, and then gave a grunt when Daniel punched him in the shoulder.

“I don’t know what the hell that was last night, but don’t you ever do it again,” Daniel said.

“Believe me; I got that lecture two-fold last night. Not keen to repeat it,” Merritt said, throwing a side glance at Jack, who was snickering into his sandwich. They both looked up when they heard a loud rumble come from Daniel’s direction.

“There’s takeout from last night in the fridge, man, or some extra sandwiches,” Jack said. Daniel nodded with a faint blush and began raiding the fridge.

“I don’t think I remember ever being this hungry before,” Daniel said, bringing his food to the table and immediately shoveling it into his face cold. The other two watched in amazement at the rate the food disappeared and then went back to their own lunches. Eventually Henley wandered in as well, joining them at the table.

Merritt cleared his throat. “So, I think we can all agree that there’s a limit to these new powers that we should try to avoid crossing.”

Daniel nodded distractedly but otherwise didn’t respond.

“Danny, please tell me you know you can’t keep going at it like yesterday? Merritt said you were practically asleep on your feet and you still wouldn’t take a break without a fight,” Henley said.

“Doesn’t really do any good to get good at it if you’re too tired to move,” Jack added.

Daniel rolled his eyes and looked up from his takeout box. “Merritt is greatly exaggerating, but yes, I’ll admit that I should be more aware of my body’s limits going forward.”

“Thank you,” Henley said. “We’re going to try to get Dylan to come back and maybe get some more concrete answers.”

“Good idea,” Daniel said with a nod and then looked around at the other three. “You guys aren’t going to try and keep me from practicing, are you? It really wasn’t as bad as Merritt’s making it sound and I was making a lot of headway.”

“Not if you manage to practice some moderation,” Henley said. “Plus your room was a safety hazard yesterday; it might be a good idea to practice outside until you get the hang of it.”

“What does the state of my room matter? It’s my room, it can be messy if I want it to be messy.”

“Your room is never messy, Danny, you’re too anal about your space being uncluttered to let it get that way under normal circumstances, so I think it’s okay if I’m a little worried. Plus, don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical of you? You tell me I can’t practice, but get up in arms when I dare suggest you take it easy?”

“What, you’re saying you actually listened to me? You can’t tell me you haven’t been practicing by yourself in your room, too.”

“What if people see him?” Jack asked, interrupting the near-argument.

Merritt shrugged. “Wait ‘til it’s dark. Rest in the meantime, maybe work on your normal tricks instead. That new one with the water could use it.”

Daniel gave him a hard look but conceded the point without a fight.

Later that night Daniel headed to the dark alley behind their apartment building. It wasn’t quite a road, though there was enough room for one vehicle at a time to come through. During the day the odd car would cut through every once in a while to avoid the intersection, just narrowly missing the dumpsters stationed at intervals along the walls.

For Daniel’s purposes it was perfect. Just enough light coming from the single bulbs above the doors to see what he was doing, but dim enough that, if anyone happened to walk by or look out their window, they wouldn’t be able to make it out for themselves.

For the time being, Daniel contented himself with moving the trash littered along the alley. He chose a used paper cup and willed it to lift, watching it move through the air without touching it. He didn’t think it would ever get boring to see that. Occasionally he would lift a second, maybe a third, object and move it as well, but that seemed to be more straining so he let it be for now.

Moving his hands along with the cup seemed to help his focus. It was possible to move an object without moving any part of his body; he’d done it with a book last night; but something about it took too much energy for him to maintain any sort of levitation or movement for long. For now, that was okay. He wanted to focus on having absolute control over every movement the object made. Besides, if he ever used this in a show, theatrical hand movements were practically a necessity.

Henley came out and settled near him after a while, watching and encouraging as Daniel perfected this aspect of his newfound ability, and goading him when he couldn’t resist showing off a little.

Eventually Merritt and Jack wandered outside to join them; Merritt claimed that his card throwing skills were good enough now, after half a night of practice, that he needed the added challenge of darkness for it to be fun, and Jack just followed behind, laughing at him.

Daniel let the cup fall to the ground and turned to Henley. “I think it’s taking less effort the better I get at it.”

“That makes sense. Muscle memory, maybe. It’s been the same with me; I can heal the smaller hurts with almost no effort at all now.”

“I still don’t like the idea of what your practicing entails.”

“Then don’t think about it.”

“Great, that’s so easy to do, just completely ignore—”

“Good! It’s easy, so ignore it. It’s settled.”

Daniel huffed and let it go, turning his attention to the nearest dumpster. “I want to try something bigger.”

Henley followed his line of sight and laughed. “Maybe not that big. Baby steps. What about that rock over there? It’s heavier than a cup.”

“If I can do books then I can do a rock.” Daniel shook his head. “Jack! Come over here for a second.”

“Really, Danny?” Henley sighed. “Humans are a little bit bigger than books. I know Jack’s short, but he’s still a grown man.”

“Well I can’t exactly try on you. If I can’t lift you you’ll accuse me of calling you fat again.”

Jack reached them before she could retort. “What’s up?”

“Stand in the middle of the road there, I’m going to try to move you. You probably won’t feel anything, so don’t worry.”

“Probably, he says.” Despite his doubts, Jack obeyed and stood in the middle of the alley, the other three surrounding him as they watched Daniel focus his attention. “Jeez, I feel like you guys are about to sacrifice me or something.”

Merritt wiggled his eyebrows and Henley swatted at his arm.

“Maybe you two should step back a bit,” Daniel said. “You’re distracting me.”

Henley and Merritt obediently stepped back so that they were on one side of the alley, Jack was alone in the middle, and Daniel was on the other side. Daniel took a steadying breath, held his hands loosely in front of himself, and concentrated on lifting Jack into the air. He heard a startled whoop from Jack and realized it was working; Jack was hovering about two inches off the ground. Daniel huffed a surprised laugh and focused again when Jack wobbled, steadying him in the air as the others let out celebratory noises.

As they celebrated and watched Jack hover, a hurried takeout driver rounded the corner of the alley at some speed. He held an address written on a scrap of paper close to his face as he double checked it in the dim light, not noticing the kid in the middle of the road until he was too close to do anything but brake hard in a panic.

Daniel was the last to realize, coming out of his concentration at Henley’s alarmed shout. Daniel’s control gone, Jack’s feet hit the ground and he stumbled back, falling to the ground in front of the approaching car with no time to get out of the way. He threw his arm up over his face in an attempt at protection and braced himself for the inevitable impact.

The impact never came. After a few moments he thought maybe he’d been hit and now he was dead; there was no sound any more, no movement. He hesitantly brought his arm down and looked at the car in shock. It was inches away from him, completely still. He couldn’t even hear the engine.

Jack looked at the others, sure they’d be just as surprised that the car managed to stop in time, and his jaw dropped. The others were frozen, like statues of panic discarded in the alley. Daniel’s arms were still up, but his face showed shock, in the middle of realizing what was happening. Henley was reaching out towards Jack, mouth stuck open with her warning yell. Merritt had managed to get almost all the way to Jack, maybe would have even been hit himself in his attempt at rescue.

At first he was too afraid to move, scared of breaking the picture and bringing the car down on him again, but then the edges of his vision started flickering, the frozen scene was almost shivering, and Jack realized he needed to get out of the way before reality fixed itself again. He scrambled to his feet and ran to the wall, grabbing Merritt’s arm and pulling him along as well.

As soon as he grabbed Merritt and tugged him towards the wall, movement began again and he felt like he’d been hit with a wall of sound as he and Merritt collapsed against the wall in a heap and the car squealed to a halt several feet past where Jack had fallen.

“Oh, my God, Jack!” Henley grabbed him and checked him over for injuries, looking dazedly between him and the car.

The driver stumbled out of the car, looked frantically underneath, and then back at Jack when he didn’t find a body.

“Shit, kid, are you alright? I thought for sure I was gonna hit you.”

Daniel, on the side of the alley closest to the driver, grabbed the man and shook him. “You almost killed him! Are you crazy? This isn’t the highway, asshole, the speed limit back here’s got to be, like, eight or something!”

“Hey, I’m sorry!” He looked at Jack. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“S’okay,” Jack said weakly, leaning heavily on Henley and Merritt. He blinked hard once and promptly passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought, good or bad! I'd love any comments or criticisms you have. Next chapter we finally get into the action.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dylan pays the Horsemen a visit, and trouble isn't far behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who commented and left kudos, and to lostvoice for beta reading this chapter!

After Merritt made sure the driver wouldn’t remember almost hitting a floating, teleporting man, he and Daniel got Jack back into their living room and laid him on the couch. 

“Jack? Jack, come on, wake up for a second.” Daniel patted his cheek a few times to no avail.

“Might be best to just let him rest a while,” Merritt said. “It’s probably from teleporting or whatever.”

“We got tired, but none of us have passed out,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “He moved maybe five feet, surely if teleporting is his new ability then such a short distance wouldn’t knock him out like this. I had to work to get as exhausted as I was.”

“He did almost get hit by a car. Maybe it was just the shock?” Henley didn’t seem to believe what she was suggesting any more than the other two did; she had her phone to her ear and was pacing, waiting impatiently for Dylan to pick up. 

“The kid’s been in a car chase with the FBI, but this is what knocks him on his ass,” Merritt said doubtfully.

“Dylan!” Henley held up a hand and Merritt and Daniel went silent. “You need to get over here. I think Jack discovered his gift, but we can’t get him to wake up.” There was a pause. “Teleportation. Probably. We can’t exactly confirm anything at the moment.” Another pause, and Henley breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, thank you.”

Henley hung up the phone and sat down with a tired huff. “He should be here soon. He said to order quite a bit of food in the meantime.”

Daniel nodded. “If he feels anything like I did when he wakes up he might literally be able to eat a horse. Merritt and I can go pick up some pizzas.”

“Lifting a whole person didn’t wear you out too badly?” Henley asked.

Daniel shook his head. “I think it gets easier the more you practice. I’m tired, but nowhere near as bad as I was before.” He and Merritt left Jack in Henley’s care to pick up the food. 

Dylan was able to make good time and arrived at the apartment before they got back. Henley let him in and gasped.

“What happened to your face?” Dylan had a painful looking bruise mottling the left side of his face, and a cut on his forehead that was held together with butterfly bandages. Henley clenched her hands into fists to resist the sudden urge to touch the injuries.

“A chase today didn’t go so well. We got him, but not before he got a few pieces of us, too,” Dylan said. “That’s actually how I got here so quickly; we just finished up not too far from here. It looks worse than it is, really. I’m fine, Henley.” He could tell it was bothering her so he tried to change the subject. “Where’s Jack?”

Henley blinked. “Right, he’s in here.” She led Dylan into the living room and sat on the edge of the couch next to Jack, explaining what had happened to lead to him passing out. “He’s been out for a while now. We didn’t know what to do.”

Dylan nodded and looked Jack over. “You said he teleported?”

“Right. Not far, though. Just a few feet or so. One second he was in the middle of the road, about to be hit by a car, and the next he’s against the wall with me and Merritt.”

“Other than simply being unconscious, he doesn’t seem hurt. It’s worrying that he’s so unresponsive, though. Even if it was his first time, teleporting such a short distance shouldn’t have taken this much out of him. I have someone I can call if he doesn’t respond in another hour or so, but right now all we can do is let him rest.” Dylan moved to stand from where he’d knelt next to Jack’s head, but Henley stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said, jerkily, “I know this is weird, but—I just feel like I need to—” She placed her hand gently on the worst of the bruising, right under the cut on his forehead. She closed her eyes and focused, running completely on intuition. 

“Huh.” Henley opened her eyes at Dylan’s quiet exclamation to see that the bruise was almost completely gone, with the cut clearly not too far away as well. A few more moments and there was no evidence of injury left at all. 

Henley let her hand fall away from Dylan’s face as he used his own to examine the area himself. 

“This is going to be a bit difficult to explain to the team tomorrow,” Dylan said, laughing a little. “Thanks. I guess that answers the question of whether you’ve found your gift as well yet.”

“I thought it was just for myself, I didn’t realize I could heal other people too,” Henley said, shaking her head. She leaned on the couch for support, but didn’t feel too drained. “It’s a pretty big relief, though. I was starting to wonder if the healing was coming from some deeply selfish part of me or something. It’s not like first aid has ever been enough of a strong point to talk about it or anything.”

Before Dylan could answer they heard a small movement next to them on the couch. 

“You guys done rubbin’ on Dylan’s face an’ bein’ weird?” Jack mumbled.

“Jack! How do you feel?” Henley asked.

“Ugh.” 

“Yeah, you’ll probably feel like that for a while,” Dylan said. 

“I’ll get you some juice,” Henley said as she rose. “The other boys should be here soon with the food.”

With Dylan’s help, Jack was able to sit up and drink the juice with little problem, but was still visibly weak.

“I remember once, when I was in college, I went to a blood drive on campus,” Henley said. “I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to donate on an empty stomach. I couldn’t finish the donation. I passed out, and I remember waking up, feeling so dizzy and like lifting my hand was the hardest thing I’d ever done. That’s what it feels like, using this magic too much. Like I’ve given too much and need to drink some Gatorade and eat a package of cookies.”

Dylan nodded. “That’s a good description. When I first got mine, sometimes I’d feel like I had run a marathon all at once. Still do if I overexert myself. You’ve probably already noticed it gets much easier with time, though healers like yourself can take much longer than others to master their gift.”

“Why is that? I feel like I’ve improved a lot already.”

“Practicing on yourself will only get you so far. Any of the healers I’ve heard of who became powerful quickly lived in areas where it wasn’t hard to come by… willing participants, for lack of a better phrase. War-torn areas and the like, or people in the medical fields.”

Henley considered this as Jack slowly rocked his head from side to side against the back of the couch. 

“I feel,” Jack said, “like a cooked spaghetti noodle.” Henley tried to hide her amused smile. “I’ll never be able to stand up straight again.”

Dylan laughed. “Another apt description. Though we’re a little confused about why such a short distance of teleportation hit you so hard.”

Jack shook his head harder. “No, no. Not teleportation. Unless that’s different from what’s on TV and stuff.”

“Can you tell us what happened, then?” Henley asked.

Jack thought about it for a moment and said, “I think I stopped time. I saw the car and panicked, but it never hit me. When I looked around, everything was frozen. It was really freaky. I’ve never heard _nothing_ before, but there was no sound at all. After a while, everything sort of… shook a little? On the edges? I don’t know, but it’s like I felt in my gut that it wasn’t gonna last much longer. When I touched Merritt to get him out of the way everything was back to normal. Or, well—normal until I passed out.”

“Hmm.” Dylan laced his hands together in thought. “I can’t say for sure that stopping time is impossible, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. Stopping time would have to happen on such a large scale that you’d probably be out for a week at least, even for that small amount of time.”

“What was it, then?” Jack asked.

“I know of a few people who’ve described their abilities similarly, and if it’s the same then you’re moving at such an increased speed that to you it feels like time is stopped. So fast that no one, not even high speed cameras, would be able to see you, even though to you it feels like your normal speed.”

“Huh. Neat.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty amazing, Jack,” Henley said.

“It’s a pretty taxing gift as well, which explains why you’re so tired,” Dylan continued. “You may need to stick to practicing for very short intervals until you have enough experience.”

Jack nodded. “Would definitely like to avoid feeling like this again.”

Soon after, they heard the sound of a key in the lock of the front door as Merritt and Daniel arrived with the food. Jack groaned. “Now we’re gonna have to tell them everything all over again.”

Daniel smirked and handed him a box from the pile in his arms. “You eat, I’m sure Henley and Dylan can fill us in just fine.”

Jack barely managed to get out a short, “Thank you!” before he shoved more pizza into his mouth than they thought should really be able to fit. 

The others arranged their dinners at a more sedate pace as Dylan and Henley began to explain what they had missed. After discussing Jack’s newfound powers and the physical toll using magic had on all of them, they all seemed to collectively realize that they didn’t know what else to ask while they had Dylan handy.

“I guess there’s just so much we don’t know still that we’re not sure where to start,” Daniel said.

“You guys are doing great so far,” Dylan said. “You’re practicing, helping each other, discovering additional abilities already, which doesn’t always happen so quickly. Really, I know it feels like you might be out of your depth here, but you’re all learning quickly. Give it time and your new abilities will become second nature to you. The Eye is planning for something big, but it will only be put into motion once you’re ready for it.” 

Dylan paused for a moment, considering his next words. “As tempting as it will be to focus solely on perfecting your new powers, though, I want to ask you guys to practice some moderation. Jack passing out was really just the tip of a very scary iceberg. Magicians can die if they truly overexert themselves. You’ll feel it if you’re getting close; like you’re being wrung dry with nothing left to give but you keep wringing yourself out anyway. It’s not always as simple as sleeping and eating to recover. I know how all of you like to push yourselves.”

The Horsemen nodded and Henley said, “We’ll be careful.” 

“So,” Merritt asked, “What’s up with the things we can do? I mean, mine’s kind of obvious, an extension of what I could already do, if you will, and Daniel here makes a certain amount of sense, control freak that he is, but I can’t figure out Jack and Henley. Sure, Jack’s fast, and Henley’s capable of applying a band aid on the fly, but I wouldn’t say they’re defining characteristics or anything.”

“Honestly, I’d need to have several degrees in psychology before I could really answer that question. Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes it’s based on things so deep inside that it’s not immediately obvious why that ability developed,” Dylan said. “The Eye has been watching you in particular, Merritt, since you were a child. Very few people can do the kind of hypnotism you perform, and they’ve always suspected that you had an inherent grasp of true magic from early on.”

“Well how about that.” Merritt leaned back against his chair, self-satisfied. “I always knew I was a special snowflake.” The others rolled their eyes. “Bonus, this will raise my mentalism game so high I could charge triple what I did before.”

Daniel snorted. “Hopefully The Eye has its sights set on something a little larger than your book signings.”

They continued sniping good-naturedly as they ate, and eventually showed Dylan out with promises to meet again once they had their new acts down a bit more. As he was leaving, he paused and turned to give them one last warning.

“Listen… Please, all of you, be careful. Try not to go out alone. Something is coming. Someone powerful is watching you. Us. I don’t know what it is, I—I’ve been meditating, trying to force my visions, but when you force a vision you don’t always get what you want. All I can tell is we’re in danger.”

Spooked, they nodded and assured him that they’d do their best to stay out of trouble.

While Merritt locked the door behind Dylan, a man watched from the shadows, smirking, as Dylan got into his car and left. It wouldn’t be much longer now.

\---

Despite Dylan’s warnings, they still needed to go out for necessities, and the week following Dylan’s visit was grocery week. It was Henley’s turn, and they decided, per the warning, that it would be a good idea to make it a two person job. Jack was desperate to be that second person. 

He’d been practicing as much as he was able, but even short bursts of ‘speed’ were still incredibly draining. He hadn’t passed out again, but he felt like he wasn’t able to get much accomplished. The first few days he couldn’t figure out how to get it to work again at all, which was even more demoralizing. Once he’d figured it out, he was still only able to freeze things for a few seconds before needing to take a long break.

“Look, I’m getting cabin fever! I can’t just sit around and wait to recharge all day, I need to get some air. I’m dead to the world anyway, it’s not like anyone’s going to recognize me.”

“Jack, that’s not all we have to worry about anymore. What if the people Dylan is talking about know you’re alive?” Henley asked.

“Then you’re in just as much danger as I am,” Jack said.

“Which is why Merritt should go,” Daniel said. “If someone gives us trouble he can just put them to sleep.”

“You want to put all of your lives in my hands? Wait, does this mean I have to go on every grocery run from now on?” Merritt asked.

“Something something great responsibility,” Daniel said, deadpan.

“I can stop everything and get us out before they even know it’s happened,” Jack said.

“Dylan said you’re going fast, not stopping time,” Daniel said.

“Well, that’s what it feels like to me. When I’m doing it, I don’t feel like I’m going any faster than normal. It’s just easier to call it freezing than running.” Jack shrugged. 

“Either way,” Daniel said, “I don’t think you’re ready for real world applications like that yet, not like Merritt is.”

“Then he can come too.”

“The more of us that go out together, the more likely it will be that someone recognizes us,” Henley said.

Jack groaned in frustration. “Then I’ll just take your place, Henley, and Merritt and I can go together. You really want to get groceries that badly?”

Henley sighed. “Fine. But I’m taking your turn next time. You’re not the only one feeling a little claustrophobic.”

Jack cheered and threw his arms around her neck, hugging her as she laughed and pushed him off.

Merritt and Jack left the apartment later that night; late enough that there wouldn’t be too many shoppers left, but not too late that they stood out.

Merritt was going over some of the finer points of hypnotism that had been giving Jack some trouble as they walked down the dimly lit street toward the store. He paused in the middle of an explanation and slowed their walking pace as he looked ahead. It was dark, but it was still New York. They may not have been in the heart of the city, but there were still several people on the street. 

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

“I kinda think my Spidey-senses might be tingling, but I’m not sure, since I wasn’t aware I had those.” 

“Maybe we should go back?”

Before Merritt could answer, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and spun around, just in time to get taser prongs to his stomach. He fell to the ground, groaning, muscles clenching and spasming uncontrollably, unable to move. He heard a shout from Jack, running footsteps coming closer, then felt a hand on his arm for a brief moment before it was ripped away again. 

When he managed to open his eyes he could see Jack struggling in the hands of the attackers. There were at least three, presumably from the van that had pulled up to the curb after Merritt fell, and two of them were trying to restrain him by holding his arms, but Jack kept flickering away, disappearing but only reappearing inches away, clearly disoriented. 

Merritt tried desperately to unclench his jaw so that he could call out a command, but the effects of the taser were still running through his body. He glared at the one who seemed to be in control, trying to silently will him to release Jack, but it didn’t seem to be working.

Jack took a breath and froze the scene again, ripping his arms out of the assailant’s hands and taking a few steps away, but it was hard to get any farther than that. When Merritt was taken down, Jack had been able to fight off the man with the taser for a moment before the van had pulled up, more men had jumped out, and someone had managed to hit him in the side of the head with something long and hard. 

After being pulled to his feet roughly, he tried to freeze them and get to Merritt, but he was hit with a severe wave of vertigo. Not just the edges of his vision flickered, like it did when he was tired. Everything twisted and tilted, flickering more violently than he’d experienced so far, and he had to let go of the freeze much earlier than he normally would have without a bleeding head injury. The first time, he had managed to get all the way to Merritt and grab his arm to drag him away, but couldn’t hold the freeze long enough and was grabbed again and dragged to the van.

It was the same this time; he got three steps away before he stumbled and had to let go of the freeze, and everything started moving again. There was a punch to his gut, and while he was doubled over he heard one of the men start shouting orders.

“Damn it, cuff him to you so he doesn’t get away again and get him in the van!”

They did as they were told. Jack resisted as much as he could, but it was hard to keep his balance, let alone fight off two large men. His left wrist was wrenched to his side as the man on that side cuffed it to his own right one. As the man on his right moved to do the same, Jack saw Merritt moving, looking past Jack and right into the eyes of the man trying to add his cuff to Jack’s arm. Abruptly, he dropped the cuff, looking confused. 

The leader seemed to realize what was going on and, as the man bent to retrieve the cuff and try again, lifted the taser to give Merritt another shock. Jack gathered all of the energy he had and froze the scene one more time. He wrenched his arm away from the bent man and did the quickest handcuff escape of his life from the other one, and staggered over to the leader. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get Merritt away in his condition, so he did the only thing he could think of; he grabbed the taser, ripped the prongs away from Merritt, and threw it as hard as he could across the street. 

Everything shifted violently and he dropped to his hands and knees as the world unfroze. The leader, standing above him, yelled angrily and grabbed Jack around the middle, threw him into the back of the van, and cuffed his wrists to the bars above each door on either side, so that he was stretched out across the width of the van, hanging from his wrists, knees on the floor. No amount of freezing would get him out now; he couldn’t unlock the cuff with one hand without a tool.

“Everything my-fucking-self,” Jack heard the man mutter before being backhanded across the face. After that he gave into the darkness at the edges of his vision and passed out.

\---

Merritt had just managed to get his arms moving again when Jack was pulled into the van and they started pulling away. He had been able to catch one of the men’s eyes and was almost able to get control of him without using his voice, but all he managed to do was get him to drop the cuffs before it was too much for him and he slumped to the ground, still twitching from aftershocks. Now he could only lay there uselessly as the van pulled away. He could see the tag in the light of the streetlamp and barely had the sense left to take note of it.

_ 429UED. 429UED.  _ He kept repeating the plate number to himself as he dragged his hand to his pocket slowly and tried to get his phone out, cursing the useless strangers passing his body on the street. _Safer not to get involved,_ he knew they must be thinking. It felt like hours had gone by, but it had only taken them minutes for them to disable Merritt and take Jack.

Merritt finally managed to get his phone to his ear and painfully worked his jaw open. He silently praised modern technology, as he didn’t think he had the dexterity at the moment to dial.

“Call Dylan.” The phone obediently began ringing. 

“Merritt? This isn’t a good—”

“They took Jack.” There was a pause and then a muffled curse.

“Who? Where are you?”

“Three streets west of the apartment. I’ve got their plate number, they drove to the north. 429UED.”

“Shit. _Shit._ I’m sending officers over now. I’ll have the plates run as well. Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better.” Merritt had slowly and painfully made his way to a sitting position.

“How bad is it? You need to be out of there before my guys get there.”

“I think I can make it out of the immediate area, but I’ll need some help getting to the apartment.”

“Alright. Get out of sight and I’ll meet you there.” 

Merritt could hear sirens as he ended the call, and struggled to his feet. He stumbled over to the nearest alley and walked through, ducking into a deep doorway and settling in for the wait. He felt awful. He wanted nothing more than to start running in the direction of the van, but every move set off a chain reaction of seizing muscles, and it was all he could do just getting to the alley. 

He leaned his head back against the jamb and sighed, hoping against hope that Jack would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first action scene I've written, so I'd love to know what you thought! Fun fact: That scene is also what inspired the whole story. Hopefully it lives up to my hopes!
> 
> 12/25 edit: It's been a good while since the last chapter was posted, so I just wanted to say that yes, I will be finishing this story, hopefully before my next semester of school starts (about a month away). This is not being abandoned. Thanks for everyone who has left kudos or comments in the meantime!


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